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After pounding the keys in my home office, there is nothing better than a little change of
scenery to get the creative juices flowing. I write for fun and I write for my supper,
which means I spend an insane amount of time in front of a computer screen. And while I
can change the atmosphere in my home office to suit my moods by switching compact disks or
reorienting the lights, staring at the same four walls day after day can dull even the
sharpest of witcrackers.
Now I’m sitting in my favorite chair in the Pulse Internet café. Almost everyone here is
sitting in front of a computer. There is a teenager in the corner who was here before me;
drinking a Dr. Pepper and playing his umpteenth round of Unreal Tournament on a giant
monitor. There is a guy surfing the Web and checking stock prices on the LCD equipped
workstation just inside the front door. Not everything is high tech. One patron is camped
out on the sofa, lounging in the warm sunshine, reading a book. There is a visitor journal
on one of the coffee tables, and every once and a while a person jots a few notes. A
little earlier I overheard someone on a cell phone describing the place she was calling
from as “this really cool place with computers and the internet and great coffee that I
just discovered.”
For several hours I have watched folks come in, grab something to drink, log on to an iMac
to check their email, and then quickly exit. Fifteen minutes of computer time comes with
every drink you buy, which is great excuse to pop in for a few minutes when the caffeine
urge strikes. I prefer my caffeine served cold, so I’ve been downing Cokes, but my wife –
ever the coffee connoisseur – reports that her tall single mocha is perfect.
Most of the visitors seem to know their way around a computer. Some do not. For those, a
staff of friendly and helpful folks tries their best to help novices get started. If the
questions get too involved, they offer private tutoring by the hour and regular classes.
A local Mac dealer first opened Pulse, and although it has since spun off on its own, Macs
still predominate. The walls are covered with a mixture of local art and Think Different
posters. USB cables, ZIP disks, and a Radeon video board sit alongside the coffee beans.
If you want info on local high-speed Internet access or are interested in buying a
computer, these guys will be happy to point you in the right direction.
My glass is almost empty. When I think about the stores Apple is rumored to be planning, I
think about Pulse. Most computer dealers are sterile, often intimidating establishments.
There are good dealers out there, but they are few and far between. Perhaps the company
that created the personal computer that changed the world can change the retail world as
well. It is not very difficult to imagine a chain of AppleCafes across the country where
folks could come in for a coffee break and spend an hour playing with a new Mac.
If Apple is looking for a cafe to use as a template, I know just the place.
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"Coffee, Tea, and the Mac"
